Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday claimed the overall Vuelta a Espana lead while Jay Vine earned the stage 10 victory for his second triumph of the race.
Two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard overhauled Torstein Traen’s lead to head the general classification by 26 seconds from the Norwegian, with Joao Almeida third and trailing the Dane by 38 seconds.
Vine put in an unmatchable performance on the final climb to finish ahead of Spanish Movistar riders Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo.
Photo: EPA
“Back in red, I’m happy with it, it’s a beautiful jersey,” Vingegaard said. “I’m happy with how the day went, I was feeling good... Every day this week is going to be a fight for the GC [general classification] I think.”
Attackers tried their best to escape at the start of the 175km run from the Sendaviva nature park to the Larra-Belagua ski resort near Spain’s border with France, but were not allowed to break free.
A mass crash in the bunch affected Spaniard Raul Garcia Pierna, who withdrew from the race.
Vine carved out a few seconds on the pack, but was caught 75km in as the peloton persisted for two intense hours.
Finally, a large break formed over halfway through the race, earning three minutes on the peloton.
Almeida’s teammate Juan Ayuso made headlines during the rest day on Monday as his split with Team UAE at the end of the season was made public.
The Spaniard was criticized by Almeida for not showing solidarity last week, but led out for the Portuguese to help the peloton cut down the gap up the road.
With Almeida driving on, followed by Vingegaard and Tom Pidcock among others, the red jersey-wearing Traen was dropped.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard took the overall lead as Traen and his group finished over a minute behind the main general classification contenders.
Vine powered into a solo lead during the day’s main climb up to the ski resort, crossing the line with his finger in the air, trailed by Castrillo who came in 35 seconds behind.
“Winning is so, so hard — it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens,” Vine said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”
With 76km remaining some pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to cross the road as the peloton approached, but were blocked by security, avoiding a mass crash.
During stage five, protesters attempted to block riders from the Israel-Premier Tech team during the time trial.
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